Recently unsealed court documents in the Hamilton
Securities case show that attorneys from the
Department of Justice and HUD(Housing and Urban
Development) lied repeatedly in court before US
District Judge Stanley Sporkin.
In an outrageous example of judiciary malfeasance,
Judge Sporkin (now in private practice with Weil
Gotshall) himself coached the government attorneys
on how they should proceed with their investigation
and litigation strategy.
Prior to the lawsuit, Hamilton Securities, an
innovative software company and its president
Catherine Austin Fitts successfully completed an
auction sale of defaulted HUD properties, which saved
the government $2.2 billion in lost revenue.
Then Hamilton became a target. (See "Bushwhacked:
HUD Fraud, Spooks and the Slumlords of Harvard."
(www.conspiracydigest.com/bushwhacked.html)
In June 1996, John Ervin of Ervin Associates, a
disgruntled HUD contractor, filed a secret qui tam
lawsuit against Hamilton Securities, Goldman Sachs,
and Blackrock PNC. He also filed a lawsuit against HUD
and HUD officials.
Transcripts of the sealed hearings show that DoJ
and HUD attorneys were clearly the strategic force
behind Ervin's phony suit against Hamilton, running
interference for Ervin in closed sessions with Judge
Sporkin.
DoJ attorneys Barbara Van Gelder and Anthony
Alexis, as well as HUD attorney Judith Hetherton, then
managed to keep stalling the qui tam lawsuit against
Hamilton for an astonishing four years. This was
apparently a clear-cut effort to bleed Hamilton's
financial resources. The time proscribed by law, by
the way, for "investigations" of this type, is 60
days.
The coordination against Hamilton seems to have
originated in the US Attorney's office in the District
of Columbia, as well as the Lee Radek fiefdom of the
Department of Justice, misnamed the "Office of Public
Integrity."
Former CIA operative Lee Radek is a master of
conspiracy cover-up and his office has a
well-documented reputation for derailing criminal
investigation of government insiders and coordinating
reprisals against whistleblowers.
Hetherton was a former member of the District of
Columbia's US Attorney's office, while Van Gelder
worked for Eric Holder, the DC US Attorney who became
the Assistant Attorney General under Janet Reno.
Van Gelder also reported to Frank Hunger, Al Gore's
brother in law, head of the Civil Division of the
Department of Justice.
In essence, the qui tam lawsuit, filed by a bounty
hunter (Ervin) on behalf of the government, alleged
that the government had been harmed by bid rigging
between Goldman Sachs, Black Rock, HUD and Hamilton
Securities.
Court documents present a convincing case that the
qui tam and the civil lawsuitS were themselves
concocted by the DC US Attorney's team -- even though
they knew it was completely without merit.
During the same time frame (four years), Judge
Sporkin illegally kept the court documents sealed to
further obfuscate DoJ's criminality.
In fact, the unsealed court transcripts reveal an
astonishing disregard for evidence and normal court
protocol by government attorneys as well as the judge.
It's clear that Judge Sporkin was guiding DoJ and
Ervin attorneys in their "search" for non-existent
evidence against Hamilton.
Sporkin, former CIA and SEC counsel under Bill
Casey, repeatedly helped government attorneys by
verbally nudging them toward some semblance of
professional behavior.
Sporkin, by the way, took over the case from Judge
Charles R. Richey who mysteriously -- and unexpectedly
-- died after the first several hearings.
In the March 29, 1999 transcript, for example,
Judge Sporkin asked US Attorney Anthony Alexis. "Where
are we on this thing here? Where's the government
going? Do they know yet?"
Alexis replies. "No." Sporkin, evidently frustrated
by the US Attorney's inability to present a credible
case against Hamilton, asks him, "You don't know where
you want to go?"
Alexis answers, "I kind of know which direction I
want to go in terms of who I want to speak to, but
there's well, obviously the documents which Ms.
Hetherton can speak to which is before the special
master."
The case, by the way, was first heard on June 20,
1996, so the preceding conversation took place three
years after the supposed "investigation," which
yielded no evidence of wrongdoing by Hamilton.
Each time attorneys for DoJ and HUD appeared in
closed session with the judge, they would, time and
again, present no evidence, no affidavits, and no
documents -- just a plea to postpone the case.
Judge Sporkin, time and again, acceded to their
baseless request and postponed the case.
The chronology of illegal and bizarre behavior by
Sporkin and government attorneys follows:
* July 1, 1996 -- Judge Richey extends the case for
60 days based on Barbara Van Gelder's unsubstantiated
allegations that fraud was involved. Judge Richey
tells Van Gelder he won't give them another extension.
Then Judge Richey suddenly gets sick and dies.
* Aug 19, 1996 -- The new judge, Stanley Sporkin,
extends the case another 90 days.
* December 19, 1996 -- Sporkin gives government
attorneys another 90 day extension. He comments on
the fact that John Ervin, the disgruntled government
contractor-bounty hunter would get 15% to 30% of the
settlement.
"Gee, I had one of these qui tams where the
government recovered close to 30 million. And the
relator I guess got -- what do they get, a third?" the
judge asks. "Thirty percent," answers Wayne Travell, a
Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civilleti attorney,
representing failed bounty hunter John Ervin.
* May 20, 1997 - US Attorney Barbara van Gelder
lies once again regarding her lack of evidence in the
case. She implies that if she's given more time,
she'll definitely come up with something concrete.
When Sporkin asks her about consolidating the two
cases, Van Gelder flirts with the judge and tells him,
"Oh, it's always a pleasure to appear before you." The
judge says, "You know how to butter me up, don't you?
You and I go back many years..."
But Sporkin doesn't recuse himself.
Van Gelder then tells the judge, "The reason why we
can't -- I believe that we can't have one case
consolidated is that one judge would have total
knowledge of the case and the problem is in the other
case we are the defendant, and so with the United
States being the plaintiff and the United States being
the defendant..."
In other words the government is in the bizarre
situation of being the Plaintiff AND the Defendant,
since Ervin has also sued the government, specifically
HUD and HUD officials. Sporkin is puzzled too. He asks
her how the government can be both plaintiff and
defendant in the case.
After Ervin and his counsel are referred to in
court as "bounty hunters," Sporkin gives government
attorneys another 90 days -- illegally. Again Van
Gelder lies and tells the judge she needs an
additional six months.
Sporkin replies, "...these are interesting cases.
I've had one of these where the relator I think, he
recaptured abut 30 million and I think 25 percent is
tops."
Van Gelder says, "Twenty five is the top, right."
Sporkin says, "And you figure 25 percent of 30 million
is 7.5 million bucks."
The message between the lines is that Sporkin is
wondering out loud what the patsy John Ervin is
actually doing to "earn" his share of the loot -- 25%
of the disputed $4.7 billion won by Goldman Sachs and
their partners in the HUD loan sales.
* Sept 10, 1997 -- Sporkin recommends that Van
Gelder use SEC investigators to figure out if the HUD
loan sales can be construed as "securities." Van
Gelder says that she wants to use SEC only in an
advisory capacity. In essence, Sporkin the judge is
advising Van Gelder the DoJ Attorney on litigation and
investigation strategy. Improper? Sure. Has Sporkin
and van Gelder been censured, fined or prosecuted? Not
yet.
* October 1997 -- HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo
abruptly cancels the Hamilton Securities contract,
despite the fact that Hamilton successfully auctioned
off $10 billion worth of defaulted HUD mortgages
thereby saving the government $2.2 billion.
HUD still owes Hamilton $2.5 million for contracted
services.
* March 9, 1998 -- HUD and the FBI loot the
Hamilton Securities office in Washington, DC. A sworn
affidavit by a building custodian shows DoJ's intent
to plant false evidence in the basement hoard of
Hamilton documents in order to frame Hamilton -- and
in turn, Goldman Sachs.
DoJ Attorney Tony Alexis appears and asks for
another 120 day extension in the case.
* July 10, 1998 -- Tony Alexis lies again and
claims Hamilton isn't giving them documents they have
asked for. The Judge stalls the case again.
* Nov 19, 1998 -- Dan Hawke, Ervin's attorney, asks
for another 90 days.
* Jan 29, 1999 - Tony Alexis, assistant US Attorney
Civil Division, asks for the case to be sealed for 90
days.
* June 2, 1999 -- DoJ attorneys continue to mislead
the court.
Judge Sporkin begins to show his frustration at the
ineptness of government attorneys. You can imagine how
he feels after more than three years of no results. He
says, "Let me tell you what you've got to do here.
What you've really got to do, because this thing is
dragging on, get a team together of some very
knowledgeable people. You might have to bring them in
from the outside. There's a big pool of people over
there at Securities and Exchange Commission you could
use. And I don't know whether you're permitted to go
outside of the SEC to bring in some people that are
knowledgeable in Wall Street and how these things work
and get into that end of it. And I don't know whether
HUD has that -- the Inspector General has those
skills. I don't know. I really, I think it's dragging
on. And the longer you wait, the harder it's going to
be to reconstruct things because what you're going to
have to do is reconstruct your market."
Translation: I'm really really frustrated with the
incompetence of all you government attorneys. Why
can't you just do the job?
Sporkin then continues leading them, trying to
motivate them to bring him something -- anything with
some kind of perceived value. Sporkin says, "I think
you've really got to get a team together that's
knowledgeable in this area of the law and can, you
know, can go into it and see if these allegations are
true or not. I don't know how you're going to do it,
but you've got to get -- I don't know -- is the
Inspector General carrying this on or do you have
anybody from Justice working on this?"
The transcripts show that the Hamilton bushwhack
was a setup, a story of dirty politics within the DoJ
and HUD.
The transcripts also implicate DoJ Attorneys,
the HUD Inspector General Susan Gaffney and HUD
Secretary Andrew Cuomo in criminal collusion, if not
conspiracy, against Hamilton Securities.
Andrew Cuomo, the mob-connected son of former
Governor Mario Cuomo, is currently running for
Governor of New York. While he was the director of
HUD, HUD Inspector General Susan Gaffney revealed in
March 2000 that $59 billion of HUD monies had been
"lost" and the accounting could not be reconciled.
Computer "error" was initially blamed for the
shortfall, but this ludicrous and laughable cover
story did not stand.
Furthermore it becomes clear that --
1. DoJ designed the construct and rationale for Ervin
to file the lawsuit against Hamilton on behalf of the
government.
2. DoJ taught Ervin how to get the ultimate kickback
as a "bounty hunter." Incidentally Ervin was actually
paid several million dollars when he agreed to
withdraw his lawsuit against HUD and HUD officials, an
obvious backdoor payoff.
3. Judge Stanley Sporkin's egregious behavior and
improper conduct is evidence of criminal conspiracy.
Well-trained in dirty tricks and spooky "tradecraft,"
Sporkin,like Lowell Jensen and Lawrence Silberman,was
"appointed to the federal bench to defuse any
litigation arising from the October Surprise or its
many tentacles," according to whistleblower Rodney
Stich in his magnum opus "Defrauding America."
So was Hamilton Securities just another domino used
by insiders to try to knock down Goldman Sachs?
Or was Hamiton and its innovative software a
serious threat to insiders who wanted to cancel the
sales of defaulted loans to hide the rampant fraud at
HUD?
Were they so afraid that Hamilton's open auction
and bid optimization software would cut them out and
destroy their covert revenue streams and money
laundering capability through HUD?
And, given the well-documented fraud at HUD, why
was the Department of Justice so afraid of getting the
Securities and Exchange Commission involved in the
investigation?
Other more serious questions also remain.
Why did HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Al Gore's
brother-in-law, Frank Hunger, head of the Civil
Division of DoJ, try to frame Goldman Sachs during the
Clinton impeachment, despite the fact that Goldman
Sachs was a major contributor to the Democrat Party?
Was this the aftermath of a failed palace coup by
Al Gore, Frank Hunger and Hillary Clinton against Bill
Clinton himself?
Timing, after all, is everything.
Hamilton Securities and Catherine Austin Fitts
continue to struggle under the burden of a meritless
lawsuit by Ervin with continuous support from the
Department of Justice.
Hamilton has still not been paid on its invoices
for $2.5 million -- unquestionably and undeniably owed
by HUD.
Gored and bushwhacked, software pioneer Catherine
Austin Fitts has paid dearly for her company's
innovations. Nevertheless she's ready to begin her new
project -- "The Solari Spirit: How to Create Local
Prosperity in a Global Economy" (www.solari.com) -- as soon as this outrageous
case is settled...